Category: Commerce

Commerce is the whole system of an economy that constitutes, the value-creating activities of an organization for profit. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any country. This becomes annoying when greed steps in.

10 Things I Wish I Could Change

Johannah

CHANGES

 

Here are 10 things I would change if I could….

Getting Old – for more reasons that I could reasonably type in 10 pages of text.  Mostly because you feel like you can see the end of your days and can’t remember a darn thing from the day before yesterday.

Rising Prices – seriously does every single service and product have a price increase every week?  And if they are all legitimate ones, why do they try to hide them?  This reminds me of my Sprint Bill, which has a line item that basically says that this is the increase we are passing on because our costs of doing business have increased.  Really every month, instead of trying to contain those costs and maybe even cut them, just divide by the number of customers you have and tack it onto their bill.

Ignorance – this covers many areas but basically I’d like to see our children coming out of high school actually knowing more than I do – not less.  I’d like to see them be able to add without a calculator, and write so that you can read and understand it.

The Weather – now who hasn’t wanted to change that a time or two.  Right now because it’s a crazy spring, I wish I could just make the temperature an even say…. 65 degrees for a few weeks – before summer hits and I’d want to cool it down say 20-25 degrees.  In winter, I might make the reverse wish, but you get the point.  If I could change it I would.

Rules – Any rule that is silly, stupid or redundant.  In VA, radar detectors are illegal, you may not spit on a sea gull, nor keep a skunk as a pet.  It is totally illegal to park a car on the railroad tracks, or ride on the handlebars of a bike.  In NJ, you cannot pump your own gas into your car, nor delay or detain a homing pigeon.

Time – I’d really like to get just a few extra hours, a few times a week.

Food – I’d outlaw that genetically modified stuff in an instant… or not ever allow it in the first place.

Money – I think the whole idea of a cashless society is flawed.  Right now when we lose power and we do often enough, you cannot buy, sell, or in any way transact financial business.  No one is taking your word that you will come back tomorrow and pay for that item – and you won’t have any way to get what you need from food to gasoline if all you have is plastic and they cannot process your payment.

Law Enforcement – I would just like to change it back to them being there to serve and protect the communities in which they serve, not just themselves and their jobs.  I give all law enforcement credit for doing the job that needs to be done, at personal risk to themselves but I think they’ve gotten trigger happy.

Court System – What a happy day it would be if we could go back to you are innocent until proven guilty.  Right now you stand a snowballs chance in hell if someone (anyone) wants you to be guilty and has the power or the money to make it happen.

 

So… what about you?  What would you change if you could?

 

 

Variables ~ and the 10 Year Plan

Johannah

Do you have a 10 year plan?  Where do you want to be in 10 years?  Have you made any type of plan for where you want to be in the future, and how you intend to get there? or do you just let it happen?

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Variables all around me in our economy and world has caused my new plan to be stalled.   Why? Because my personality doesn’t really like to make a decision (about the plan) without knowing all the variables.  I like to be able to see the path from beginning to end, and then carefully chart my course.  Checking off the milestones and making decisions along the way according to the plan is just the way I usually like to roll. 

I haven’t ever written down my plan on paper.  But I really did have a list of things I wanted to accomplish in life from when I was a child and although they were vague …. I wanted to marry, have children, have a house of my own, save a million dollars … you get the idea. Later this list became revised, to include living debt free, having a business, saving for the boys college education, and being a grandmother. 

Planning and thinking about these things helps build a framework to a goal. It gives you a direction and a reason to forgo some of life’s instant pleasures for the joy of making the goal happen.  So many people could benefit from doing this.  It isn’t easy by any means, but it gives you something to work for and towards — and it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

Just think of the things that “could be” easier to deal with, if you planned ahead.  Things like the type of education you wanted, your education costs, how much your first house might cost,  where you might like to settle down, or what you goal/dream job would be? 

Years ago, you could put together a workable plan pretty easily.  You saved a certain amount, you received actual interest that made it look like you were gaining on your goal, and you were “on your way”.   You bought a house, and knew “down the line” you could sell it for more than you paid for it ~basically a fairly secure investment in your future~ as well as it being your home.  You worked hard for an employer who had a retirement plan so that you’d have that safety net and today …. nothing is guaranteed.  Don’t get me wrong, nothing was guaranteed before either, but it was assumed to be so, and usually was — so that the plan had a secure footing to build upon.

Part of it,  I know is my personality – like it or not I do try and choose my path, and plan the way to the goal without considering if, or what “could be” if I changed that path along the way.   I do consider the variables before I start, but once en route I really don’t think about them much.  Most of the time, and through most of my life, my paths have not been hindered by large obstacles or horrific circumstances.

Today the variables seem to be all around me outnumbering the choices. All are vying for my attention – chose this way, chose that way…. oh no, don’t do that, do this instead.  Because of where the economy is, where it might be in a few years, and my age,  the variables seem to be overpowering any long term decision making.  So until I can work to “clear a reasonable path” for our next 10 years, I think I’ll put the plan on hold.

Do you “plan” and if you do, how are you getting around your obstacles to make it happen?

 

Watch your Text Messages

Johannah

Text messages never before seemed  like any kind of a threat since I have “unlimited messaging” but there’s a new way they could be!

I hardly ever use my phone in general and text messages in particular.  I have an ancient phone which I can almost never find when I need it.  And admittedly I am definitely not “up to date”  with the technological advances in phone technology.  My husband and I will joke with each other when we need some tidbit of information in the car… saying “just look that up on your phone” but of course we don’t have a phone that can even come close to doing anything like that.

The text message I received seemed harmless — somebody from a ringtone place saying that I was signed up for as many free ringtones as I wanted — or something like that.  I ignored it right along with the ones from the local Wawa or Kwik Chek  which offers me a deal on a sandwich or a coffee.  I never respond to any of them and quite honestly, they pile up as messages for quite some time before I even get to open my phone to know I have them.  That’s right I don’t use my phone every day.  I almost never can find it when it rings, and I certainly don’t use one of those unique ringtones.   However, I have to admit “emergency” cases have come up over the years and I am glad I have one — I just am not that connected to it.  

So imagine my surprise when the next month on my phone bill I discover at charge for $9.99.  I haven’t a clue what it is, and why it’s there.  I think it’s because I pushed the wrong number into my phone when trying to use it, I think I might have some sort of feature I don’t know about and activated it by mistake.  What I do know is that I don’t want it, whatever it is and I sure don’t want to pay $9.99 for it.

 Cell Phone Ringtone   Yes, it turns out it’s a ringtone scam.  They find your cell number by “any means they can” and then they send you a message about having been signed up for free and unlimited ringtones.  If you do not respond with “STOP” – you get charged $9.99 a month as an access fee to this “free unlimited ringtone” service.  Now you never asked for this, you have no clue why they called your number, but they will bill you as a third party biller through your cell phone service provider for it, each and every month until you cancel it.

   We caught ours the first month, because we read our bills and yes, try to figure out and make sense of any odd charges, or unexpected balance.  Anyone on an automatic payment deduction from their bank account each month, might not notice or care or think about this $9.99.  Many would actually just “assume” their plan or the taxes attached to their plan went up….and this is how and why this particular scam works so well.

So while you can’t hide your cell number from these new thieves – you can check your bill and make sure you aren’t one of their victims.  Our provider was happy to provide the short code to send a ‘stop” message to this company on the same phone the message was originally sent to,  and even waited till I received a confirmation on the phone from them.  She removed the charge off my bill — and per my request blocked all premium services like this one from my phone.  You may not be able to block premium services as I know many of you use them every day – but you can and should make sure that you aren’t a victim to this type of scam. 

Sweepers – Have you been labeled and disqualified?

Johannah8 Comments

I just recently read of something pretty annoying to me.  It’s about a “blog contest” which has put the blog owner in a sort of a quandary.  She ran the contest per the sponsors’ instructions, and at the end picked a random winner.  The winners’ entries were verified (the entrant completed the mandatory and optional choices to receive her entries legitimately).  She notified the winner, and then notified the sponsor who (in almost all cases) is responsible for the prize fulfillment. 

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  However that’s when the issue occurred.  The sponsor told the blog owner that they would not be awarding the prize to this winner because she was a “sweeper” and “she had won previously”, and that the blog owner should pick another winner.  Does being a sweeper disqualify you from winning?  Does winning one or more of their giveaways disqualify you from ever winning again?  How does one get labeled a sweeper?  Does winning separate contests from the same sponsor mean they will disqualify you – at whim, or randomly, for no good reason?  As far as I can know, this person entered in good faith – where she might have tweeted, or pinned, or shared on  Facebook, or maybe signed up for a newsletter, etc. just as all the other entrants had done.  And even if she has done this on every single promotion this sponsor has run, and has won previously, what makes this person now ineligible to win?

The blog owner didn’t want to pick a new winner.   She had already notified the legitimate winner.  There was no discussion about letting the sponsor know who won in advance of notifying the winner, there was no discussion, language or rule known to the blog owner or entrant, that allowed the sponsor to make this “arbitrary” decision.  The blog owner feels as if she is now in a precarious position because the alleged “sweeper” did all that was required of her, and was picked randomly and fairly. 

The issue is – Can the sponsor disqualify a winner for this reason if it was not stated upfront to both the blog owner and the entrants?  Can they just keep having random winners picked till they “agree”  on a  person who is OK to win the prize?  Can you pick your friend, sister-in-law or aunt if they happened to enter and you wanted them to have the prize?  Can and do sponsors of blog contests make lists of people they will NOT allow to win in their contests? 

How do you feel about this way of doing business – this fixing of the contest, this outright manipulation of the results?  We’d all be naive if we thought blog owners, or sponsors never did some of this.  I’ll bet they do it daily in one way or another (like just never sending the prize out to the winner).  I feel that no matter whom you are, why you entered, how many times you entered – if you entered legitimately – and were chosen randomly – you deserve the prize.

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If this promotion clearly had stated that you cannot win a second time from this company, or that once you won from them, you were never able to win again from this sponsor, I might think differently.  But I believe that it’s really sneaky that the sponsor doesn’t mention that they will chose the winner in a fashion that might not be fair, and  have the right to determine who you are, label you and then disqualify you at whim. 

I am not a lawyer, and I don’t work for the FTC (who might be the one who regulates things like this), so I don’t really know what to say.  As a blog owner the lack of ethical behavior on the part of the sponsor, and their lack of honesty really appalls me.  Actually it makes me a bit angry – because they really are treating the winner as a cheater who shouldn’t win because they’ve already awarded her a prize in a previous giveaway.  This entrant spread their message and basically did marketing for them by tweeting, sharing and entering, just like every other entrant hoping to win.  Nowhere did they give her any indication she was doing all that work for THEM for nothing as they had no intention of awarding her the prize.

I don’t personally know this blog owner, I haven’t ever to my knowledge hosted a giveaway by this sponsor and I am not the winner in this instance.  I have no investment in the outcome of this particular case but  I wrote this article because it’s annoying to me to know that even when you think people are running legitimate contests (and most are), behind the scenes sponsors are manipulating the outcome.

**No one paid or influenced me in any way to write this article, the contents are 100% my own opinions about an injustice that had come to my attention regarding a specific blog contest sponsor. 

UPDATE:  The sponsor in question has decided to award the prize to the “sweeper” who actually won!  This is good news although the sponsor said they have rules on their actual site that say they have the FINAL say in these matters and that they can make this type of decision.  I believe if they want this type of rule,  just make sure everyone knows it, and sees it before they enter.  And remember.. with them saying they have the final say ~ that  could mean just about anything.  I can tell you, they are certainly not going to get any blog entries from me – I have better things to do with my time.

 

How The Internet Actually Works

Johannah

With millions of internet users, all of which browse the internet from time to time, it is important to understand how the internet actually works in conjunction with a WAN (area network). What happens when you do that simple search in Google? This illustration helps explain the process:

Ethernet to Wan to Internet - the Process

The WAN Ethernet plays an important part of any internet connection and search on your personal or business computer. Servers, ISPs, your actual machine, ethernet network … All these things come together to provide you (the typical searcher) with a quick response to your online search!

Provided by XO, A Ethernet WAN Provider

Provider – XO Communications